Bio-Engineering of Pre-Vascularized Islet Organoids for the Treatment of Type 1 Diabetes

Overview

Journal Transpl Int

Specialty General Surgery

Date 2022 Feb 21

PMID 35185372

Authors

Charles-Henri Wassmer

Fanny Lebreton

Kevin Bellofatto

Lisa Perez

David Cottet-Dumoulin

Axel Andres

Domenico Bosco

Thierry Berney

Veronique Othenin-Girard

Begona Martinez de Tejada

Marie Cohen

Christina Olgasi

Antonia Follenzi

Ekaterine Berishvili

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Lack of rapid revascularization and inflammatory attacks at the site of transplantation contribute to impaired islet engraftment and suboptimal metabolic control after clinical islet transplantation. In order to overcome these limitations and enhance engraftment and revascularization, we have generated and transplanted pre-vascularized insulin-secreting organoids composed of rat islet cells, human amniotic epithelial cells (hAECs), and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Our study demonstrates that pre-vascularized islet organoids exhibit enhanced function compared to native islets, and, most importantly, better engraftment and improved vascularization in a murine model. This is mainly due to cross-talk between hAECs, HUVECs and islet cells, mediated by the upregulation of genes promoting angiogenesis () and β cell function (, ). The possibility of adding a selected source of endothelial cells for the neo-vascularization of insulin-scereting grafts may also allow implementation of β cell replacement therapies in more favourable transplantation sites than the liver.

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